Has anyone ever Fedexed, rats?

Now that I am Fedex approved, I got to thinking. Can the hobby breeder ship rats Fedex safely? Obviously, most regular boxes, they could chew right through. And they would need air holes.. and thus I guess it'd be something you could only do in the warmer months if at all..
I just wondered. It'd be awesome to provide people with one, or a few, nice rats to start their breeding operations with. Something that did not come from a pet store at least..

You know I was thinking about that last week. How would you package? And then when do you ship? I would like to know how petsmart and those large corps do it. Maybe they have a good practise going on.

You can only ship live rats via air cargo in a pre-approved shipping container. It costs over $100 depending on the weight. You can't ship them in a closed box, they would suffocate or chew out.

Wow, sounds expensive. Are the shipping containers, those heavy plastic grid-type ones? They stack one atop the other.. I saw them somewhere before.
I think that this idea is one that has been blown out of the water. :)

Yeah, I saw Petco's shipping boxes the last time I was in there. They're basically double-walled flat tubs with what looks to be a mesh reinforcement between the layers. Kinda like a corrugated cardboard box, but made of plastic instead.

Some places use a steel mesh box, inside of a different vented shipping container.
The local university uses these and my friend was telling me "Oh I can just get some of those for you". I told him not to steal the things, they have to be expensive AND I can't ship anyway, it's too costy, plus you need vet papers for animals to ship them too.

I'd agree that it wouldn't be worth it. The shipping cost itself just gave me a minor heartattack, haha! And, as Wolfy stated, you do need vet papers. When I was looking into having a certain dog flown into me, the poor breeder sounded so stressed and kept expressing how extensive the process was. But, like any good breeder that has agreed to ship their animals, she was more than willing. We talked more about the process, and I decided we would skip it for now. She wasn't unhappy at all! I don't blame her! Shipping animals is definitely a stressful, pricey experience.